Thursday, 31 May 2012

Still Waiting

It looked serene, it smelt of summer. To my mind summer is now here, I've heard the Beach Boys on the radio, I've seen a dog hanging out of a car window with its tongue out and Lady Sarah is partaking of the Pimms......it's summer.
I am entranced by this water and up till now it has spurned my advances, but Lady Sarah and I were there and we were to do the night. We had one side of the lake to ourselves and as I set up for the night I imagined ol' Dick and Fred sitting there on a night such as this smoking, cooking and chatting. This lake does that, it takes you somewhere else. Escapism in its purist form. It's what I like, what I crave.
Working on a weekend limits my fishing to grabbed moments. I take it when I can. I find myself fishing in less than ideal conditions. The carp seem to have finished spawning but the resident catfish were hard at it, some of them were huge. I managed to get some footage of the smaller ones.

Once set up, we ate ﻿and drank in the fading light. The good Lady gave a patient smile, my mind distracted from her temporarily, fishy thoughts dominating.

I was fishing two rods, same bait on each, to a clearish area not too far from the bank. The rigs ? Simple, but effective, no need to overcomplicate on this lake.

One of the Neville alarms gave a bleep, then again. I looked up to find that a log, about twenty feet long had drifted into my swim, taking out both lines. It was just a case of wind in and wait until it had drifted through. This took around half an hour, by which time it was dark. It was about this time that the good Lady though it might be a good time to bed down on MY new Nash Indulgence bedchair, she gave it the thumbs up. I was consigned to my old Terry Hearne X-lite.

I soon started to get line bites, I knew they were from feeding fish because I was fishing a slack line and fish passing through wouldn't register. I soon found out that the cause was Bream. I actually like them. Many don't, but I've found over the years that they are a good way of judging the effectiveness of a rig and whether carp will feed on a particular spot, they will usually muscle the bream out and feed on their patch. When I hooked the first one I viewed it with optimism.

The night progressed and after a few more up to around eight pounds my optimism began to wain. I hardly slept a wink. Some have told me that nights on this lake have spooked them so much that they will no longer fish there. To me, the moonlight, the nocturnal sounds and the anticipation give me a natural high. I really love it. Alas the morning came all too fast. The water in front of me covered in weed, thrown up from the bream shoals night-time troughing and the catfish's courtship.

It's my theory that the bream were taking advantage of the semi-spawny carps disinterest in food at the moment. Gorging themselves on the bait while the bully boys were away. I will persist will the chosen method on the next session and see what happens...until then I'm still waiting to connect with one of those carp.
I enjoyed the overnighter, I don't really show how much I enjoy the company of Lady Sarah, I'm in the zone you see, I'm a different animal on the bank. It's not easy to explain.
Her views on this idyll are somewhat different,"I read my book, ate burgers and slept a lot."..Haha

It certainly is mate. The old syndicate members have long filled the ears of newbies with tales of hauntings and nocturnal nasties in an attempt to put them off. Old Gurn's a bit too long in the tooth to fall for it. I will stick my shades over the lens next time Dave. This aint the bloody BBC you know!!:-)Thumbs up on the pressies by the way.

Hi Benny, My headwear of choice is the Turnberry, by Hoggs of Fife. It has served me well and I recommend it highly. You can find it at the following link(you may have to copy and paste my friend)..http://www.hoggs.co.uk/prodcut_details.php?catid=24&product_id=6regards Gurn